Yes, that’s meant to be a slightly amusing title. But more than that, this is an article to get you to focus on being more lucky. That’s right, according to this super smart British dude, you can learn to be luckier. And that’s not based on happy thoughts and cartoon fairies (not that I have anything against either of those!). That’s based on a decade of research into both good and bad luck.
Richard Wiseman (seriously, his name is wise man) is a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. He wrote a book called The Luck Factor after doing extensive experiments. He studied 400 people, tracked what made them lucky, and then took them to ‘luck school’, to see if he could help them think like a lucky person. Turns out, that is indeed a doable thing – one month after luck school, 80% of the folks involved were happier and more satisfied with their lives – and were luckier.
Here’s the gist of it: there are 3 things that can make you luckier (even if you already think you are).
1 – listen to your gut. We tell you that all the time in the clinic, and it turns out that lucky people do it all the time. They’re not just rational; they trust that intuition that whispers to them. And hey, with that non-conscious part of your brain being 1 million times busier than your conscious mind, what your intuition is whispering to you is likely something smart that your conscious brain just hasn’t gotten around to thinking yet.
2 – variety is indeed the spice of life. Whether it’s changing how you drive/walk/ride home every day or deciding that you’re going to talk to the first person who holds open a door for you, variety increases your likelihood of bumping into chance opportunities. And if you ask me, it also increases the neuroplasticity of your brain, which does all kinds of good.
3 – like the song says, always look on the bright side of life. Apparently lucky people see the good side of everything – even bad things. One of the volunteers, for instance, showed up with a broken leg from a fall down the stairs and happily pointed out that he could have broken his neck but didn’t.
That’s it. Three easy-peasy things you can do to make your life luckier – and happier. Why not try them? In fact, I double-dog-dare you to make a conscious effort to do these three simple things for a month, and then let us know what you think. Or, to quote Clint Eastwood (just because we can) – You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?